007 reporting for duty, ma'am.

→
October 12, 2012

Contains very minor plot details. No spoilers.

“You know the rules of the game. You’ve been playing it long enough.”

M says this to Bond at the beginning of Skyfall. While she’s referring to Bond’s vast experience, hinting that he might be past his best, it’s also referring to the Bond movies in general. We’re all familiar with the rules by now. We’ve played the ‘game’ so many times – 22, to be precise. And as Bond celebrates his fiftieth year on the big screen, and we reacquaint ourselves with those iconic elements – the villains, the girls, the gadgets – Skyfall could have easily felt contrived. But Skyfall is a master of its own game, and is smart enough to adapt those rules, creating a film that respects yet transcends its rich heritage.

The film opens with a sequence that could be from any recent movie in the series. 007 is in Turkey pursuing a hired gun who has stolen an encrypted MI6 hard drive containing the identities of deep cover agents. Bond must retrieve the drive before the information goes public. It’s 15 minutes long and the action is relentlessly exhilarating and thoughtfully orchestrated. As it finishes, you breathe a sigh of relief while the stunning opening credits begin to play. Relief because you realise that not only can Sam Mendes direct action, he can make it look beautiful.

Skyfall then begins like any other Bond movie. He meets M. He gets a mission. He goes off to exotic locations, and sleeps with a beautiful woman. These aren’t spoilers; these are the rules. But after those early trips to Turkey and Shanghai and Macau, Skyfall stops globetrotting and returns to London, remaining in Britain for the rest of the film. From hereon, it begins to stray away from the well-worn formula. There’s still plenty of memorable action, including a barnstorming finale, but Skyfall is unafraid to intersperse it with scenes of literary dialogue and emotion. The action is always in the service of its story.

After the awfully convoluted Quantum of Solace, Skyfall’s plot is refreshingly simple. M is under threat. Her past is coming back to haunt her, and that ghost seeking revenge is Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva, who must immediately rank as one of Bond’s greatest villains. I can pay him no higher compliment than by drawing comparisons with Heath Ledger’s rendition of The Joker. So far Craig’s Bond has been let down by some unmemorable villains, but Bardem is every bit his equal and a true antagonist, a painful thorn constantly twisting in Bond’s side. He’s creepily charming, even playful, yet there’s also a terrifying violence scratching away beneath his skin.

And Bardem would undoubtedly steal the movie if it wasn’t for another defining performance by Daniel Craig as James Bond. Skyfall really provides him with the opportunity to showcase his ability as a great actor. He’s brutal when he needs to be, and charming and suave when the situation arises. But it's those icy blue eyes of Craig – something the opening credits poignantly linger on – that let the melancholia of Bond seep out between the bluster and the bravado. His performance hints at but never fully reveals the emptiness of the character, and why he compulsively flirts with death and self-destruction.

Skyfall is a supremely confident movie from a confident director. Mendes doesn’t succumb to the rules, but is respectful of them. Action doesn’t dominate proceedings: it’s all in service of telling a story about betrayal and revenge, and one that takes Bond back to his ancestral home and makes him evaluate the few relationships he has.

It's not perfect. The pacing sags early on, but for a film that’s 142 minutes long that’s an entirely forgivable sin, especially since the finale is so compelling. Ralph Fiennes’s Mallory and Ben Whishaw’s Q are both excellent in supporting roles, so much so you want more of them but the emphasis is firmly on the relationship between Bond, M, and Silva.

But the weakest aspect of Skyfall has to be one of the Bond franchise’s most enduring ingredients: the ‘Bond girls.’ Naomie Harris is awkward as field agent Eve; she's doesn't seem comfortable in her brief action scenes and her chemistry with Craig is virtually non-existent. Bérénice Marlohe has one particularly intense scene with Craig, but can't really be classed as a true Bond girl. But the reason why Harris and Mariohe get such a raw deal is that neither of them is Skyfall’s real Bond girl – that honour belongs to Judi Dench’s M. Skyfall rewrites this rule. She’s not a one-night stand, but one of the few constants in his troubled life – a surrogate mother of sorts – and Skyfall explores this affectionate, tender yet highly dysfunctional relationship.

The Verdict

In Goldeneye, M questions the relevance of James Bond. She’s calls him “a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur – a relic of the Cold War.” It's a theme that echoes once again in Skyfall but this time it's technology that has made him an anachronism. In a world where computers can bring down economies as easily as planes, is there really a need for a man with a gun? The answer is yes, and just as Bond reminds those around him that sometimes you need a man capable of pulling the trigger, Skyfall reminds audiences that the Bond films can still be relevant.

The 50th anniversary of Bond is being celebrated in many ways this year, but Sam Mendes may have found the perfect way to pay tribute to this enduring icon of popular culture: He’s made the best Bond film yet.